Two “diplomatic” events early in the Biden presidency characterize the bald cynicism and deceit in diplomatic “agreements, accords and treaties.” An examination of the cancellation of the Keystone pipeline and the rejoining of the Paris Climate Accords define the U.S. decline in international standing. Both political moves are just that, nothing more. No wait, they’re virtue signaling at its zenith.

Keystone did not, will not and cannot prevent Canada’s tar sand product from entering the U.S. for delivery to domestic refineries. What it DOES prevent is safest transport. Instead it is transported via U.S. highways and rail. Both are infinitely more likely to experience spills and crashes than a pipeline that was +95% completed, in the bargain the accompanying thousands of jobs disappeared. The economic damage, plus loss of trust by Canada is self-inflicted. But we got in our virtue signals!

Following the White House lead, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer attempted to deny crude flow across Michigan through Pipeline 5 owned by Canada’s Enbridge Pipeline. Extending from Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin then across the Mackinac Straits though Michigan to Sarnia, Ontario, that line carries a half million barrels of product per day. Despite international treaties, Whitmer takes her cues from the White House and its green acolytes poking our ally and trading partner in the eye. It’s a bald reversal of former governor Rick Snyder’s agreement to protect the pipeline and keep it operational. Flush the pipeline, the economics and our neighbor to the north — we are virtuous!

Likewise the 2015 Paris Climate Accords are meaningless as to remediating real or imagined impacts on climate. As in the days of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the U.S. was/is reducing its footprint beyond negotiated goals. The U.S. never ratified the Kyoto document and later withdrew its signature.

Kyoto and Paris are vehicles ridden by green elitists and wastrels signaling their virtue with an odious sidebar of validating beggar states pleas for “remediation funding.” In the bargain the U.S. signs on to providing smokescreens for “developing countries China, India, Russia and other major polluters to earn international political points for “agreeing.” Their solemn lip service is belied by their poell mell construction of coal-fired power plants.

Brazen political 180s are what passes for “diplomatic” resolution of conflicts. The historical reality is that treaties, accords, trade agreements and the like are transitory. they range from thinly veiled coercion of the weaker party to the “agreement, to stalling tactics for one or both parties to seek advantage over the other, to such travesties as the Treaty of Versailles…not to mention “treaties” across North America with First Nations and indigenous peoples as Europeans accomplished Manifest Destiny and the violent subjugation of the native populace. Deception and misdirection in such agreements is a given.

In fact the history of agreements and treaties is rife with conditions agreed to in settling one conflict cause more strife and lead to greater conflict. The terms at Yorktown did not solve the issues between the colonials and the Brits, but rather led to expanded hostilities resulting in the War of 1812 and dragged Spain into the fray in the bargain. With both sides exhausted, the Treaty of Ghent finally settled the matter.

Five decades later terms singed by the Confederacy at Appomattox ending the Civil War/War of Northern Aggression fueled domestic economic conflict, disgruntled rebel veterans turning outlaw and terrorizing the frontier and freed former slaves struggling for decades just to survive.

Fast forward past the dreadful conflicts on the Barbary Coast, the Spanish American War and the Versailles Treaty imposing intolerable conditions on Germany that gave rise to Nazism and the atrocities by the Axis powers. The 1938 Munich Agreement signatories Germany, Italy, the UK and France framed the model for today’s accords and treaties. Hitler and Mussolini signed to buy time while deceiving the French and the UK’s Neville Chamberlain, who triumphantly stated the agreement would bring “peace in our time.”

That proved optimistic as millions lie dead, including Hitler, Mussolini, their significant others and some six million Jews. Soon to follow was the Korean conflict(still unresolved) with a wobbly 70-year ceasefire in place. The Cold War followed thanks to the Potsdam Agreement and the subsequent Paris Peace Treaties that divided Europe and created the Iron Curtain. it’s a sordid history from which we reap a bitter harvest today.

The list below is not nearly complete, but one gets some clarity as to the absence of sincerity and gravitas with which relatively recent treaties, accords and agreements are regarded:

ANZUS Treaty — the 1951 treaty was not really a treaty as it was non-binding. It provided for collective security trilaterally between the U.S. New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand said adios therebyu dramatically reducing military and intelligence ties.

China/Hong Kong — After a century and a half of colonial rule, Britain relinquished control of the island in 1997. The process was to provide for “one country, two systems” until 2047. Apparently Chairman Xi is either calendar challenged (less likely), or beneath the stoic facade lies (pun intended) an oppressive obsessive (most likely)…up next Taiwan/Taipei — prosperous, independent and a boil on the chairman’s keister.

Seoul 2012 Nuclear Security Summit — President Obama provides an inadvertent peek under the kimono when he’s caught telling that paragon of virtue, then-president (Putin coat holder) Dmitry Medvedev, “Tell Vlad (Putin) I’ll have more flexibility” to deal with contentious issues, needing “space” until after the election. With typical Russian bon homme, our boy Dmitry replies, “I understand your message about space.” In viewing this exchange Medvedev exhibits all the poise and charm of the fetal pigs high schoolers dissect in Biology class. We apologize for that insult to to the worldwide fetal pig community.

Iran Nuclear Deal — Scoring another U.S. diplomatic “victory,” in 2015, Iran was coaxed to dismantle much of its nuclear program and open its facilities to more extensive international inspections in exchange for billions of dollars of worth of sanctions relief. Part and parcel of which was the tidy sum of $400 million in cash flown to the mullahs in August 2016, followed by another $1.3 billion about a month later. Once the hale fellows in Tehran got the dough — SURPRISE, SURPRISE (apologies to Gomer Pyle) — the U.S. is accused of reneging on provisions of the agreement and Iran’s nuclear development proceeded apace. Various reports indicate as of spring, 2023, Iran is mere months away from full nuclear capability.

START Nuclear Arms reduction treaty — extended for five years in 2021 the bi-lateral U.S./Russia treaty placed limits on intercontinental nuclear weapons that the U.S. and Russia can have. Russia began its non-cooperation following its invasion of Ukraine and in February, 2023 Vlad said he was suspending Russia’s participation.

2023 Black Sea Grain Initiative — The most recent chapter in this saga of bait and switch is the on again/off again Russian two-step on shipping Ukraine grain as brokered by another shining example of the ineffectual, the United Nations. Our boy Vlad changed his mind in March agreeing to allow shipments and then in April once again threatened to disallow shipments/ unless the U.S. removes obstacles to shipments of Russian grain.

For more on the sordid history of treaties by the United States and European nations, Laurence Beilenson’s The Treaty Trap is highly recommended reading.

Which brings us to the topper — Paris Climate Accords — this exercise has it all. Virtue signaling, government fiat posing as science, bleating and braying of bureaucrats foreign and domestic, handwringing, hysteria, solemn proclamations of doom, jetting to meetings around the globe, agreements with signatories whose stock in trade is signing and promptly violating agreements, and oceans of money thrown at schemes, scams and never-will-bes, are all on full display. Documents will be signed, pens handed out, hands shaken with bows and photos taken. President Obama was widely acclaimed for his role in this “monumental achievement.” Donald Trump saw it for what it was and bailed out. Assuming the role of Grand Poobah of the Green movement, Joe Biden jumped back in.

The discernible impacts short and long term? Wealth flushed and redistributed, more japery and bawling from the world’s Thunbergs, Sanders and AOCs, economic and strategic advantages taken by the globe’s thuggery — and — how about the climate?

Next up we’ll check in with some scientists, real ones, for their take on climate realities, the fantasies of the Paris Climate Accords and some potential positives that could evolve from the present morass.